


Run Boy

by shinesurge



Category: Kidd Commander (Webcomic)
Genre: Gen, Ulrich Has A Bad Time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-15
Updated: 2018-08-15
Packaged: 2019-06-27 14:39:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15687444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shinesurge/pseuds/shinesurge
Summary: We meet The Tain.A novelization of, roughly,pages 196-201of the Mile High Engage arc, from Ulrich's point of view. Spoilers, obviously.





	Run Boy

Ulrich felt a weight in his chest before anything else, like his heart and his stomach were being pulled out of him, and the dark that blanketed the dim light of the cave had weight too, dragging him down. His extremities flooded with the numbness of adrenaline, a familiar tightness was squeezing the breath from his lungs, and in spite of his instincts screaming for him to relocate to anywhere but where he was he felt...submissive. It seemed like it would be very nice to lay down under the weight of what was coming, like fighting back would be _rude_.

He stared in the direction of the noise, the thunder of millions of skittering claws, voices screeching and sucking in air and hacking it out, eyes rolling in smoky sockets and growling stomachs. 

The sound thrashed a void between his ears and the weight in his guts pinned him where he stood as a wall of darkness advanced. His mouth was working, saying things, screaming at somebody whose name he had forgotten because what else could he do faced with something so _loud_ -

Phineas' command to move was tangible and bright, yellow against black made painful with its urgency as a foreign spirit sank into his muscles. He felt his body obey even as he babbled frantically, Ulrich's most basic instinct to _just keep talking_ laughably useless while his brain was struggling to know itself apart from the din scratching and howling inside of his skull. He covered his ears, pointless against a sound stuck _inside_ , and became dimly aware Phineas was speaking. 

"Wh-what?" he hollered. His own voice was whipped away from him, like the wind (underground?) was reaching into his throat and wrenching his words away, but hers came back to him clear and stern. Deliriously he thought she was speaking into his ear even as she fell back to put herself between him and _whatever it was_ , flinging fierce promises that he would be safe, her voice thick with fury at whatever had dared to threaten them. He knew he would die, whatever she insisted, but he clung to the light of her voice like a raft in a storm.

"I need you to focus for me, tell me what you see in front of you."

A herculean feat of combined willpower forced him to comply as they barreled into an enormous chamber, blinded by the sudden dazzle from a starstone deposit that took up an entire wall. The far reaches of the chamber were still cast in shadow, and in the dark the starstone dust in the cave rock itself glared like gleaming eyes. More there was _more_ of this darkness, panic washed over him again, how could there be _more of them_ , they were in the _walls_ the entire _world_ was made of this -

He lurched his gaze back in front of him.

"There's an opening! An exit!" He shouted. The barest glimmer of hope, maybe they could make it before -

He knew Phineas had left him even before turning back. The raft was gone, the grip of what had swayed his body to move was gone. He turned miserably, reaching for the metal of his revolver because there was nothing else to reach for.

Phineas' bright hair and skin were stark against the sheer blues of the cave, starker were the vantablack tendrils weaving over her, the living shadow pooling around her and dragging her in even as it continued to bleed from the cave artery they'd come from. 

Spurred on by desperation, not to lose the only ground he'd gained in so long, not to be left _alone_ down here, Ulrich made an attempt. He swore, unaware he was doing it, unimaginably he backtracked towards the creeping horror, raised his weapon and fired into the fray. The lead tore through the black like tissue paper, like smoke, loose light and sinew fraying through the hole. Nothing happened. Some part of him expected it, being the person he was, but he still felt frustrated terrified tears pricking the corners of his eyes. The thing turned to him, 

he knew in his bones he was going to die he was going to die here he was going to die and no one would ever find him Bel would never know what had happened to him he was

Phineas was gone, the light of the stone couldn't reach him here, the void rose impossibly higher and crested into a wave above him and his vision was full of eyes and teeth and his ears were rushing not with his blood but with

eyes and 

teeth

The voice of the thing exploded in his head, shattering his soul and the earth he stood on, fracturing the air around him, the issued order the last thing left in his universe. 

Ulrich ran.

 


End file.
